Rotherham woman awarded compensation after dog attack

News: Local, national and international news 24-hours a day.

A woman has been awarded £15,000 in compensation after being mauled while trying to protect her two pets during a dog attack.

Rebecca Lambert, aged 41, was walking her beloved pet dogs - a westie and a puggle - along a public footpath when they came under attack.

A bull terrier being walked off its lead ran towards Rebecca and her dogs while its owner shouted, ‘The dog is going to fight’.

Before Rebecca had time to pick both her dogs up off the ground to protect them, the savage bull terrier sank its teeth into her puggle pup - a cross between a beagle and a pug.

Fearing that the pup was going to be killed, Rebecca fought the bull terrier off - suffering puncture wounds, scratches and lacerations to her hands, thighs and face.

Her clothes were also ripped during the struggle, which lasted around 15 minutes and was witnessed by members of the public.

The owner of the bull terrier struck it over its back with his walking stick - which broke in two.

Shocked passers-by on Lilly Hall Road, Maltby, Rotherham, came to Rebecca’s aid before paramedics and police arrived at the scene after being contacted by Rebecca’s stepdaughter.

One Good Samaritan revived the injured puggle at the scene before it was taken for veterinary treatment, which proved costly.

The owner of the bull terrier responsible for the attack disappeared before police arrived - but an investigation was launched and he was eventually tracked down.

Rebecca, from Hellaby, Rotherham, then took out a private claim for compensation from him - for the injuries and distress she suffered on the day, lasting physical and psychological damage, and to pay for her dog’s veterinary fees.

Solicitor Mark Fisher, who specialises in animal accidents for Sheffield and Chesterfield-based law firm Graysons, said: “The English bull terrier is one of the dogs considered dangerous in the Animals Act 1971 and the owner was liable for the damage it did.

“The owner was already aware the dog had acted in a dangerous way previously - yet he didn’t restrain it or try in any way to prevent it from causing the accident. The dog has now been destroyed.

“Around 6,000 people are injured through dog attacks every year, but many people are not aware they have the right to make a claim against an owner if their animal causes an accident or injury.

“But indeed they are - and in fact the recent amendment to the Dangerous Dogs Act now makes criminal prosecution possible for those whose dogs display aggressive or threatening behaviour on private property, as well as in public, including their own home.”

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

The Star provides news, events and sport features from the Sheffield area. For the best up to date information relating to Sheffield and the surrounding areas visit us at The Star regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website The Star requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.